Thursday, March 10, 2016

March News and Notes

Happy Spring! It’s finally coming! Windows open this week and everything. It was wonderful. Sigh. That’s about all the good news I have right now. The entire family has been down for weeks with this stomach illness, making it impossible for me to work, even if I had felt well enough to. The Marc and Angie backstory has been delayed until the first week of April, as well as the remaining blog posts on here. I’ll pick back up with the schedule around April 10th, I hope. In the meantime, you can still get this book at the preorder price, so that’s good, right? Here ya go!

Book 9 is available for preorder. The release date has not been set, but every preorder allows me to pay for all the things that come before you get it. Which reminds me! Some of the big stores are now offering updated content, which means you can get the edited copies, for free, in your digital library. The list below is all the books that have been edited/rewritten over the last two years. Considering how long it takes an editor to go over a 900-page book, I’d say we’ve made some great progress. And again, I am sorry for the mistakes. I can’t tell you that enough times. I promise to do better with every book I release. Thank you for your patience and for loving the stories as much as I do. You’re all terrific. I hope you know that.

Edited or rewritten titles:

Life After War Deluxe: Books 1-3

The Survivors

On The Road

Safe Haven

Adrian’s Eagles

From the Ashes

The Bachelor Battles One: The Change

The Bachelor Battles two: Changeling Winds

Something New!

Since the rest of the month’s posts will be delayed, I’m giving you the something new right now. Happy reading!

Waving at you,

Angie

Book 9: Life After War

Shattered Dreams by Angela White

“Fire in the hole!”

After three days of Adrian blocking and blowing roads to their den, the call didn’t garner attention. In fact, even the sound of his voice was mostly ignored. People inside Safe Haven had more problems than a former leader hanging around. Marc had told them everything that was coming. He refused to lie anymore and the result was a very twitchy camp that needed reassurances from their seer that weren’t coming. Angela wasn’t in any condition to communicate or handle duties. The doctors had agreed to keep her sedated since all she did was cry when awake. Even when Marc was with her, the tears were constant and that man wasn’t sure how much more of it he could handle. He wanted his Angie back, even if she was a cruel, self-centered bitch.

They’d talked a little and he understood why she’d made the choices she had, but it didn’t stop the anger or the guilt. If she had told him what she planned, he would have helped, not interfered. She had no right to exclude him that way and then blame him for what went wrong. At the same time, if he had been able to follow her plans in the past, instead of always feeling the need to second-guess her choices, then maybe she would have confided in him. The gulf between them could hold towns.

The rumbling was ignored by Safe Haven, who was aware of what Adrian was doing. Marc had told the camp that they would be hearing from him regularly while he closed down the mountain. Angela had sent him out to handle that chore alone, in the storm leftovers, with dazed, angry ants roaming everywhere. Marc still wasn’t sure if she was trying to kill Adrian, though he was rooting for it. He did hope she let him get the roads and paths secured first. There were too many threats in range for his liking. Marc wanted to challenge them all, but nothing would get him to go against Angela’s plans and plots right now. She’d only given a few orders since being brought down from the bloody mountain, and he was making sure they were followed. He didn’t want to bunker in here now. He wanted to rush out and meet Vlad’s townspeople with his fury. He didn’t want Adrian locking their doors, either, but that feeling was minor compared to his anger at the people who couldn’t let them have any peace. They’d fought for ten months to keep it together. They’d sacrificed and suffered enough. When did they get a real break?

According to their witch, no break would come until they reached safety. People were now assuming that meant Pitcairn Island. Kendle had no idea how popular she would be when she returned. Some people thought she might just keep going, but Marc knew better. Kendle was terrified of being back on the ocean. She wanted to leave, but the methods were going to keep her with them a bit longer. Marc had wondered if she knew Angela and Adrian planned on a cruise ship. There was no way she would deal well with that and Marc was glad they would be pulling other boats that would need a skeleton crew. It would allow Kendle a different type of ship, at least for the journey that Angela had predicted would take over a month. Instead of foreign lands, flooded coasts, and the unlikely chance of making it back to the Gulf of Mexico, they were going to sail around South America. Marc was daunted and forever impressed with Angela’s courage and ambition. He also thought she was slightly nuts.

Marc shrugged, leaning under the hot water. After everything the world had gone through in a short year, it was a wonder that the survivors weren’t all raging lunatics.

“Ants are clear from all levels,” the radio on the rocky ledge crackled with Billy’s excited voice. They’d clearly had a battle. That rush of happy adrenaline came from surviving. Marc knew it well. He still craved it some days, but the apocalypse had already given him plenty of action. There was no danger of his skills getting rusty.

Marc had already scrubbed and he lingered, enjoying the intense steam of a nearly scalding shower. He still hadn’t adjusted back to having this wonderful convenience. His showers, unless Angie was along, had mostly been quick to save water and let him get onto the next duty or challenge. Now, they were sheltering in place for a month and he could take all the time that he wanted.

The bottom floor shower was empty around him, with only a set of guards who had snapped to when he came in and still hadn’t eased. Knowing their attention was securely on their job let Marc relax and he sank down on the seat beneath the ledge that held his guns and radio. He adjusted the water so that it was a hot trickle on his shoulders, then leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. He had Kenn and Zack, with Kyle and Jennifer over them, covering the top level of their cave. Neil’s team was policing the second floor, with Daryl and Kendle overseeing two rookie teams on level three. Down here on level four, was Ray and most of Marc’s old team of Eagles. Things were being handled like Angela had instructed and Marc suddenly wished she was here with him so he could hold her in this cloud of peaceful steam and promise her things would get better, that the doctor was wrong.

Her injuries were healing quicker than Jimmy was comfortable with, but even he was following his instructions to the letter-documenting descendant medical finds and sharing them with the other personnel. There were only a few differences, but they were huge and future generations would need that information. To cover his nervousness, the doctor was now traveling in a pack of students, using them to bolster his courage. Marc approved of the coping and the training. He’d thought the man would have to be run out because of his attitude, but Angela’s injury had revealed his attachment to her despite their love-hate relationship. He was giving her excellent care, according to Hilda and Peggy, who were always nearby.

“Power has been reestablished in the gaming area. You may resume your free time there,” the radio echoed again, this time with Tonya’s calm voice. They were still repairing Jayson’s treachery. They were also fixing minor issues that would have come up anyway and Marc was satisfied with their shelter. If not for the coming problems, he would never agree to leave. These mountains were perfect. The surrounding areas would ruin it.

Marc wondered how much time they had left before that crisis hit and shoved the thought away. This was his down time; time to think and restore his own faith. Plans and schemes would come when he had his guns back on.

He turned off the water and tugged his towel down, draping it over his lap, he remained in the steam, enjoying the sensation. He hadn’t been in a sauna for a long time and the stone walls and floor in here made this a very similar experience. It reminded him of days he’d stolen for himself over the years. He had liked going to a ski lodge where no one knew him or an isolate camp ground if he felt like roughing it. Life after war was much like the life he’d had before the bombs, except the stress levels were through the roof and the supplies weren’t neatly delivered and stacked for his use. He’d always thought an apocalypse would make things easier in some ways, but he’d been wrong. The old world of convenience was gone and it surprised Marc to still be mourning it. He knew some of the camp was feeling this way too. It was hard not to with real running water and electric in the caves, but it was knowing they were leaving again that brought on this retrospective mindset. None of them were eager to go. Even those who believed this place to be cursed were busy enjoying the tv room, the game room, the activity floor. Despite the chaos that had taken place, Safe Haven was actually calm and relatively happy right now. Angela had lived, Vlad and his threat was gone, and there were no more refugees screaming at their gate. If not for the overcrowding and Angela’s predictions, things would be perfect.

Marc winced as the image of Angela’s bloody body on the mountain ran through his mind. She’d told him he was in charge before fading out last night and he hadn’t argued. The camp already assumed he was, but she’d known it had to be official. Their witnesses, the doctors and students, had nodded in approval. They knew his leadership would be enough to get them through until she recovered, but it bothered Marc to hear the rest of that thought. We hope. Agree with her methods or not, these people knew she was the best person for the job. It made the urge to do better grow stronger.

He had thought things were covered before the chaos wiped away his delusions of success. This time, he wouldn’t make that mistake. He was double and triple checking his plans and decisions, trying to look further ahead, like she and Adrian were able to do. He wasn’t sure if his short-sightedness could be unlearned but he was determined to try. He was also determined that he wouldn’t become corrupted the way their former leaders had been. He hated to include Angie in with Adrian, but the proof was undeniable. She’d known the avalanche was coming and let it happen to kill hundreds of desperate refugees. She’d taken life forces. It didn’t hurt him to be with someone who could do those things, but it was killing him inside to know that she’d fallen. She’d been full of good and light despite awful childhood events and even worse things as an adult, and he knew she was torn apart over it. His Angie had always been good. For that to change, meant she wasn’t at peace with herself anymore. She would need help through this.

“But not from me,” he muttered, anger and pain rising. There was no way he could be unbiased. Intentional or not, her choices had cost him a child.

Tears that no one else would ever see slid down Marc’s cheeks. His dreams of a happy family with Angie shattered and ran from his eyes in torrents. He had no idea how they would go on from this.

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